JOUER L'IMAGE: THE STREET ORGAN

In the framework of theSci-Fi Trilogyexhibition, Saudaá Group and Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture would like to invite you to a musical performance by the participants of the Jouer l'Image workshop.

Jouer l'Image is a workshop that invites children of Bourj El-Barajneh camp to discover the street organ and its unique language: perforated cardboard invented to produce sounds with this mechanical instrument. Using it as a support for visual creation, the workshop aims to approach music creation through image, language and writing. The children will participate in the process of collective creation, through drawings and collages on music cardboard.

The barrel organ is a mobile wind instrument that plays music mechanically while combining the technical aspects of liturgical organ music, watchmaking and mechanics. The street organ first appeared in the 18th century in Europe, but the first form of a mechanical flute is rooted in the 9th-century Arab world, in Bagdad. In Europe, it was played in public places by peddlers, beggars or foreigners. Not only does it embody a togetherness-turned "unlearned" society but also music for the masses. This ancient instrument is more than ever deeply rooted in our lives: the very first computer (by way of perforated cards), the ancestor of computer-assisted music (along with the language MIDI), and a catalyst for social connections.

Saudaá Group was established in 2014 by French musician Alexis Paul.

In 2016, the group established residencies around the world for the Street Organ Ritornellos project. He worked with over 30 musicians in a dozen different countries, from the High Atlas to the countries of the Caucasus, seeking to renew the three-century-old instrument and communicate its legacy to a wider audience

The workshop and performance are supported by Institut Français du Liban- Ambassade de France au Liban.